A Horse With No Name

I'll have to test drive an ILX sometime to check it out but... between the two, my money would be on the Verano.

Oh hell yes....

Yes in a lot of ways we do... But in the actual modern Trans Am series they are all tube frame monsters with not a whole lot in common with a road car...I miss the earlier era.

Vaughn and the Mustang beat the Imports in formula drift.... Glad to see this. I obviously love some imported sports cars, but as the father of three teenagers (two of them sons) It's nice to see Domestics represented in a way that will appeal to the younger set. They need to know and love and respect American Iron too, dammit!

http://www.formulad.com/blog/2012/press-releases/vaughn-gittin-takes-the-victory-at-round-4-the-gauntlet-at-wall-speedway/

No Idea at all...was hoping someone here would know.

I remember a lot of cool Buicks as a kid... Back when they came with 455's from the factory...THOSE were cars, my friend.

Maybe for you two, but this is the beauty queen I'd be voting for: I'm with you pal... I wonder if they would have put a Tri power in a 4 door? I don't really know....but wasn't the 57 Olds available as a Tri power? ...and OMFG...I am just spechless with the photograph of that Olds.

The other thing that I was really impressed with is how flat this thing stayed when I pushed it. A quick definition-an off camber turn is one where the banking is reversed from the banking of say an oval racetrack, and gravity is working against the car as you take a corner. I took the Buick through several, and I couldn't get the car upset at all. Turns that would have brought tire squeal or protest from the Volvo C30 or the V-6 Manual Mustang I drove brought not a protest from the Buick. I've lived in Columbus since 1989, and my test drive route had plenty of little opportunities for the Buick to show body roll, the front end bobbing under heavy braking, or other bad manners. Let me just say that there is a LOT of European sports sedan DNA from somewhere in this car, As we finished the test drive, I told the sales man to hold on and that I was going to push the car a little bit. I took a turn from one 4 lane road to another sharply at 44-46 miles an hour, not even bothering to slow down. Driven as such, the car cornered flatly and perfectly, no under steer, no tire noise, no protest at all...with a flawless transition to the straight as we headed down the other 4 lane road. The Buick Verano Turbo may just be a world beater if GM can keep it up. Color me impressed! And I'll snap some pics when I take the Mrs. for a test drive....not sure how soon that will be, but it's coming. Thanks for reading this far!

The seats were nicely supportive, although I found the seats to be better in both the GTI and Volvo C30 that I previously test drove. We'll call front seat comfort an 8.5 out of ten here. What I would give another ten out of ten to on this car is the brake tuning. The brake feel is very, very good for a non performance car, and the brakes were among the most linear and easily modulated of any car I've driven, including the Porsche Boxster. Our test drive, and the life of this particular Verano almost came to a very sudden and painful end when a Ford Flex cut us off on I-71 on the test drive. The Verano was so silky smooth as it rapidly bled off velocity and switched lanes that I honestly don't even think the salesman even noticed how urgently I had to react to avoid an accident. Another 10 out of 10 would be the chassis tuning on the car. In Columbus, we have an Ice cream store that has really weird flavors, things that you would never think to put together that somehow end up tasting good....like blueberry-Jalapino. The Verano seemed to be like that, with the lightness and nimbleness that makes me so impressed with cars like the Ford Fusion combined with the well planted feel of say a Lucerne. You really have to drive the car for awhile to appreciate how good it really is. No...I didn't. Sorry. And I was really impressed with the car, so let me rant on with one more positive point...I promise, I'm almost done!

Another thing I liked is the shape and size of the trunk. Unlike the Camaro which has an awkwardly shaped trunk opening, or the modern Jetta which is a little deep and awkward to access, the trunk is ideally shaped and sized IMHO for a nice long highway trip. This may seem trivial, but since I have a large family this is a design detail that just might push things in Buick favor when it comes time to buy my next car. The FR-S I test drove has an interesting design detail in that the engineers stretched the back seat/trunk area just slightly to accommodate 4 race tires if your going to do a track day. In a similar fashion, the trunk of the Verano seems nicely tweaked over that of a Cruze for real world use. It just somehow "felt" right. Back seat comfort is also nice.

There are things in the interior that really stood out though. First of all, the analog gauges are of a really excellent quality and very easy to read. They lit up in a very pleasant shade of blue, which I would strongly prefer to the harsh red light of both the MINI and the Miata we currently own. The dashboard layout is very modern but also very intuitive, with none of the busyness of an Acura TSX or say a Ford Focus. It's much more simple in design than say the Malibu, and the longer I drove the car the more I liked the dashboard. Probably more than any other modern GM car, including the Cadillac CTS. Buick just nailed this part of the design right on the head.

So, you all may well know that we just bought the MINI Cooper S for my wife to drive. My son is going to take our four door family car for his use, and we are going to be in need of a more door practical car in the next year or so. I've enjoyed reading the reviews of the Verano, and thought they looked like a sharp car. Since I got off of work a little early today, I stopped by the local Buick dealer for a quick test hop. There were things I liked, things I didn't like, and things that I thought really stood out as positives. First of all, things I didn't like. Biggest of all the side profile is a little bit busy with the extra front quarter window and extra rear quarter window. It almost reminds me a bit of the old checker cabs. It just looks needlessly busy. Wasn't quite sure that I liked a few of the lines at the front of the car, mostly where the hood meets the grille and where some of the character lines fall in the hood. Overall, I'd give exterior styling a strong B...but I'd like to see Buick refine the design language just a little bit if the do a mid cycle refresh on the car. Wasn't really sure I liked how high the car seemed to sit either. It's a minor nit, but I think the car would look a little better if it rode just slightly lower. Maybe the new Turbo model will cure this. Things I liked: the car in the showroom was Mocha Brown, which seemed well suited to this car. Usually brown looks bad on a car, but this particular shade of brown looked fabulous on the Verano IMHO. Were I to buy one, I would want it in blue. There is a new blue coming out for next year, but the salesman said they are not sure if it is going to only be available on the turbo model or will be available on the regular car as well. My test drive car was also Mocha Brown, and unlike the Verano in the showroom it came with the cloth interior. I found both the cloth and leather interior to be very well assembled. IMHO the fit and finish and attention to detail exceeded a lot of much more expensive European cars (read-Audi and BMW) that friends of mine own. Perhaps someone else here can fault the Verano in some way with regards to interior, but I found quality of assembly to be superb. Paint finish seemed to be very good, although the Mustang I test drove before we bought the MINI had a better level of finish in the door jambs and trunk interior, as well as less orange peel. Overall I'd give the level of interior assembly a strong 10 and the paint quality a good 9 on a scale of 1-10 if I were to rate them.

Yes it is...blu...glad to see this one coming. along so well.

Seems logical.

I like the idea OF A FULL LINE UP FOR BUICK. I REMEMBER THE MIDSIZED BUICK WAGONS WE HAD RUNNING AROUND AS A KID.... oops, damned caps lock....

Glad you guys are enjoying it, more coming! More cool pics later, guys

I'm still also a fan of the small bore stuff, a vintage Alfa Romeo Camaro hangin its tail out... This is when racing was racing... Firebird and Mustang duking it out at the limit...

Levester Lewis bringing his Camaro into the pits with a blown tranny on lap 41... Toasted wheel bearing on Donahue Camaro Maybe this should be in the guys and cars thread....Donahues Camaro again....Fuel stop... ...and one that should be in the Curves thread... ...or two...

A few more, this time from my love of road racing. Mid Ohio, Trans Am racing, circa 1969 Eat your heart out, boys! A Camaro in thunder Valley To be fair, a little equal time to a Mustang.... Mustang and vintage 911 Vintage Firebird and Camaro New Cutty, new for 69 camaro, new for 69 Charger in the spectator parking area.... Javelin and firebird